Neo Instruments Ventilator Rotary Cabinet Simulator

Guitarists have lusted after the airy magic of Leslie speaker cabinets since the ’60s, and nearly every multi-effects unit offers some sort of “rotary speaker” program—but truly authentic-sounding Leslie simulators are few and far between, and typically relatively expensive.

I plugged into the Ventilator with the input switch set to Low (Hi is for use with low-gain pickups) and the Key/Git output switch set to guitar (to disable cabinet emulation), running mono into a Rivera Venus 6 amplifier. The sound was so inspiring that I didn’t stop playing for half an hour. Not only did the Ventilator nail the sound and performance of a Leslie 122 better than any simulator I’ve heard, adjusting the Drive control imparted grind and distortion entirely reminiscent of a Leslie’s overdriven tube circuitry. And connecting the unit in stereo through studio monitors with the cabinet emulation engaged was so realistic I could swear I felt a breeze coming from the speakers. In short, I loved this thing and it receives an Editors’ Pick Award.